More Camping

Who would have guessed that I would be up for camping every other week? We have had a lot of fun getting away to spend time together. This week we went up to the Uintahs. We found this great spot off the side of the road near China Meadows. We could walk this path down into a meadow with the Smithsfork running through it. It was perfect! We didn't see another person the whole time. There were pools for Logan to fish in and Chad and Connor could fish the rest of the river. Ashlyn fished a little but she eventually found her way into the water. She is a fish, she doesn't need to catch them. Connor caught his first fish unaided on the fly rod. It was a very proud moment for Chad. Connor is officially back into fishing now that he gets to wade with his dad. Logan didn't have much luck but he had a blast because he learned how to cast by himself. On the last night he had a melt down because he didn't feel he had got enough fishing in. We had fished all day and the night before but it wasn't enough for him. Chad took him out until it was dark so he could get his fill. Of course we forgot the camera again so we can't show you the beautiful site. We'll have to go back. We came home with dirty kids and a million bug bites including some weird bites that left Logan with dots of blood all over his neck and scalp, but, we had a lot of fun. Even I am glad that we bought a trailer.

July 4th Weekend

Our July 4th weekend was busy but, fun. We ended up at the South Fork again. We stayed Wednesday night through Saturday afternoon. Originally we were going to go to the Uintahs or to the Blacksmith Fork but we decided to stay close instead. Our good friends the Sargent's joined us for one of the nights. Even though we stayed in the same campground, we did completely different things. The first time we spent a lot of time fishing. This time we spent most of our time floating or playing in the river. We had a lot of fun although our behinds are bruised from hitting the rocks along to way. It was great weather most of the trip. The one rainy night we had fun playing games in the trailer. We can never go back to tenting it. The last day was a little colder so we kept the fire going most of the day which meant SMORES all day long. Yum! After we got home Saturday night we had a yummy dinner at the Sargent's and then we went to the Morgan fireworks with my Mom and Dad and Melissa, Matt and Mya. Ashlyn was really cute for the fireworks this year. She danced and cheered. I had more fun watching her than the fireworks. It is a big change from a couple of years ago when I had to walk her to the car before the fireworks started to prevent a melt down. Sunday night after church we had dinner at Amy and Dave's. The kids mauled their kittens and begged to bring one home. (Apparently they haven't figured out that I am barely willing to keep the one pet we have. They are lucky to still have Foster after the nightmare of taking him camping. We quickly fixed that mistake and took him home after the first night.) Amy and Dave had saved some of their fireworks for the kids to watch. The girls danced and the boys enjoyed lighting them.
Last night we had to go fishing to make up for the lack of fishing on our camping trip. Mellow Logan had an out of body when he realized we were going home from camping without meeting his fishing quota. I promised him we would go for Family Night. I had heard about a pond in East Layton so we decided to try it. The pond was full of blue gill. Although they were tiny each of the kids caught a couple. Connor's friend Sam caught his first fish. It was cute how excited he got. The water was clear enough that you could see the fish chase the worm. The kids had fun but Logan won't be satisfied until he catches a fish that he can eat. He caught a big fish at East Canyon a couple of months ago but we never got around to cooking it. He still hasn't got over it. If we don't make it up to the Uintahs soon we might have go the fish farm.

Day Camp

Connor and I went to day camp 1 1/2 weeks ago. I forgot to post the pictures. The scouts all had a blast. Is there anything a boy likes more than shooting bb guns and using bow and arrows. Connor bought a pocket knife at the trading post. I ok'd it for camping use only. I quickly regreted it as he cut his finger while on our camping trip. Thank goodness it wasn't deep. What would the doctor have said if he had to stitch Connor's thumb which is sticking out of a cast? It will be awhile before we get the knife out again. Anyway back to day camp. Connor had a lot of fun. We got lucky and had perfect weather. It was the only day it didn't rain all week. There were obstacle courses, nature walks, games, wrist rockets and canoeing as well as the archery and bb guns. He can't wait for next year. I was glad I could be there with him.

MMMM Smores!

We decided to go camping this past weekend. The kids wanted to go to a real campground--trees and dirt. We wanted to stay close because of the constant rain so we ended up at South Fork. It actually is one of our favorite places because the campsites are really secluded and pretty. After a downpour and hailstorm on the way up we had perfect weather. We had a great time fishing at Causey and Pineview (although we never caught anything). I say we as if I fished. Ashlyn and I plopped ourselves in the water and enjoyed the sun. Logan is our fisherman. He even had fun watching Chad fly fish on the South Fork. He was obsessed with catching a fish (hmm he might be a little like his Dad). Connor fished on and off but he spent more time skipping rocks--not the best thing to do while fishing. Connor's favorite part of the trip was shooting Chad's pellet gun. He told us he is more like Uncle Alan, a hunter rather than a fisherman. Even Ashlyn loves camping. She cried as we pulled out to come home. It always amazes me that such a girly girl princess likes to get wet and dirty. It was fun to get away. We had a great time! We can't wait to go back when Connor's cast is off so we can float the river.

1st Broken Bone

Connor is the first person in our family to break a bone. He was playing basketball downstairs with Logan Monday night. This is his story: "I tried to trip Logan (hard to believe he admitted that) and he fell on me which made me fall down." He caught his arm wrong. There was no swelling so we figured he sprained it. We even went to Lagoon on Tuesday and he seemed ok. When it was still hurting on Wednesday Chad took him in. It is a buckle fracture. The doctor made us feel better when he said that these fractures often go untreated or are caught a week or so after they happen because of the lack of swelling. It is just our luck. Whenever we rush our kids to the doctor it is nothing but when we wait it is a bigger deal than we thought. He will miss his baseball tournament and won't be able to swim for 1 month. I guess this will teach him not to trip his brother.

Phase 2

This process is taking a lot longer than we expected. We hope to enjoy our deck sometime this summer. The builder has had trouble with the trusses. The first two sets that were delivered the truss company built wrong (one with the wrong length, one with the wrong pitch). At one time we had 3 sets of trusses stacked on top of each other in our driveway. The final set are the ones pictured but if you look closely they have additional pieces of wood on top. Apparently we have some weird pitch that our builder has never seen. When he measured he thought it was a 9 pitch but I guess it it a 9 1/2 pitch. He is having to alter them by hand. The weather isn't cooperating either. We have had so much rain this past month. They are hoping to tie into our roof in the next couple of days but it can't rain or we will have a waterfall in our kitchen.

End of Kindergarten

Logan's class had a Hawaii program for the end of the year. Logan did a great job. I can't believe he is already done with Kindergarten and moving on to full day next year. He loves school so much that I thought he would be sad for it to end but he is so excited for 1st grade that he is willing to put up with summer break. He is excited for school lunch and a new school that even Connor is jealous of. We are 2 days into summer break so we'll see how long it takes for him to want to be back in school. We are hoping to start back the end of August but with the K-2nd school not looking very completed it might be a long summer.